Fresh US airstrikes on Yemen Thursday marked the single-deadliest known attack under President Donald Trump’s new campaign targeting the Houthi rebels. The Pentagon has been intensely bombing Yemen since March 15, when the Gaza truce collapsed.
A Houthi spokesman announced Friday that the attacks killed 38 people and wounded 102 others. The death toll was hours later updated to at least 74 killed. The operation mainly targeted and destroyed the Ras Isa oil port, which sent massive fireballs shooting into the night sky.
The Red Sea port includes a collection of three large oil tanks, and is the terminus of an oil pipeline going to Yemen’s energy-rich Marib governorate. On Friday open-source satellite imagery showed an extensive blaze at the site.
Local footage of the aftermath of the strikes has widely circulated on social media. Much of it is very graphic, showing corpses strewn across the ground as huge fires rage all around.
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) had quickly confirmed the strikes on the oil terminal. “The Houthis have continued to benefit economically and militarily from countries and companies that provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” a statement began.
“The Iran-backed Houthis use fuel to sustain their military operations, as a weapon of control, and to benefit economically from embezzling the profits from the import. This fuel should be legitimately supplied to the people of Yemen.”
The statement further noted that fuel has continued to be be shipped via the port of Ras Isa, and that profits have helped bolster the Houthis’ military capabilities.
Perhaps anticipating large civilian casualties, CENTCOM continued, “This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully.”
And that’s when the Pentagon highlighted Iran’s role, at a moment the White House has warned it could bomb Tehran if it doesn’t come to the table to forge a new nuclear agreement. “The Houthis, their Iranian masters, and those who knowingly aid and abet their terrorist actions should be put on notice that the world will not accept illicit smuggling of fuel and war material to a terrorist organization,” it said.
Huge fireball at the Ras Isa oil port on the Red Sea coast…
⚠️ BREAKING:
17 civilians killed, dozens injured in the U.S. strike on the Ras Isa oil port in Hodeidah.
This is the “defensive” operation the world keeps justifying.#Yemen #اليمن pic.twitter.com/6NC0kJWgZM— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) April 17, 2025
The Houthis, in response, have rejected and denounced the attack which killed civilians, saying: “This completely unjustified aggression represents a flagrant violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and independence and a direct targeting of the entire Yemeni people.”
The statement featured by the SABA news agency then said, “It targets a vital civilian facility that has served the Yemeni people for decades.”
Another video from the scene:
⚡️🇺🇸🇾🇪BREAKING:
Al-Hudaydah Health Office: The death toll from the American attack on the Ras Issa oil port in Hodeidah, Yemen has risen to 58 and 126 wounded, in a preliminary count.
The attack was carried out in two stages. After the first wave of airstrikes, ambulance crews… pic.twitter.com/KG8TpLnNuK
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) April 18, 2025
Some local sources are claiming it was a ‘double-tap’ strike, and that the death toll is so high because the second wave hit after emergency crews first arrived at the scene, but these statements cannot be verified.
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